Violet Otindo

Award-winning television producer and reporter.

Violet Otindo is a television producer and reporter with Citizen TV and chair of Media for Environment, Science, Health and Agriculture Association (MESHA). She is an award-winning journalist, taking home the CNN/Multichoice 2009 Environment Award, and the SJCOOP Science Reporting Fellowship for 2010-12. In addition, she is one of Internews in Kenya’s health fellows, as well as Health Story-teller of the year.

Violet explains that as the media is still a major preventive tool in public health, it is very important for her to attend this conference. “I am going with an open mind, to network, to understand even better the issues related to HIV, to gain new insights into funding challenges, and to learn how I can report on the virus from a new and fresh perspective,” she says.

“Most newsrooms have not been able to send journalists to the conference,” she notes, explaining how important it is to be given this support by Internews. “There are so many topical issues in Kenya that I can cover at the conference, such as voluntary male circumcision for instance, what to do when people become resistant to treatment ? all important issues for the public and our news audience. And I will get to actually interview key people there, one-on-one. This is not always possible [at home].”

Violet Otindo did a 20-minute live interview with the US ambassador Jonathan Scott Gration during a press briefing at Internews offices on a new campaign to halve preventable deaths in Kenya in a year. The interview was aired on K24 on October 10 and repeated several other times.

Taken for granted: a three part story on the challenges people with disability face as they seek to access HIV prevention and Aids care services was aired on K24?s Untold Stories programme on 27 November at 7.30pm and was repeated the same day at 11pm. See links:

Part 1;

Part 2;

Part 3;

Following the fellowship, Violet Otindo got a job with Kenya?s leading TV station, Citizen where she has produced memorable health stories including a two-part series on Prime Time news on youth, sex and contraceptives. The story (see links below) was developed during the fellowship and done on an Internews travel grant.

Part 1

Part 2

As part of her data journalism assignment and travel grant Violet also produced a story on The Congress Grass Menace that was aired on Citizen TV on Prime Time: